gmil6184

Sounds awesome BTB, and thanks again for the input. The woods plot I have in mind is about fifty yards in the woods from an overgrown hay field. Its located near the corner of the field and the deer travel up and down both sides of the field just inside the woods, and the trails intersect right there. Its fairly close to a property line that gets pretty decent hunting pressure so that pushes them towards this area too. Its fairly open in there now because it got logged last summer but i'm sure it will be getting thick over the spring and summer. The stand is located WAAAYYYY up this old hemlock tree and overlooks a little natural clearing, maybe a 1/5 of an acre. With a chainsaw i figure i can knock down a few of the smaller trees there to open it up a little more to make the plot bigger and let more light in. I thought with those trees gone I would just rake away any leaves and score the groung up with the rake, lime, fertilize, and then use a no plow seed mix. Since the soil condition i'm sure is going to be pretty mediocre I'm not planning on amazing growth, but i figure if I can give them another reason to walk through there it will be worth it. You said you used agricultural lime on your plot, why was it more messy then pelletized lime? I thought it was all basically the same stuff? How much does lime generally cost if you don't mind me asking?

TRACKER

I just tilled under an older plot last week .
I have a New Holland TC-30 with a 5 foot tiller .
I made 2 seporate plots the run parralell to each other , Abought 1 1/2 acers .
Bigger plot I used the new Whitetail Instatute Chic magnant ,
Its a chicory mix . I also thru in a bunch of turnip seeds .
2nd plot is an experament I used a Blue boy ? company sead witch contains a variaty of clover , brassia etc, I also thru in some pumpkins , turnips and carrotts .
I also have a couple bags of buck forage oats to plant witch will be abought another acre ,but I,ll plant it in the late summer ...[:-]

bawanajim

Lime around here is 35 dollars per ton.

BTBowhunter

I used ag lime which is basically pwdered limestone. I bought it by the 50 lb bag locally for 1.49/bag. You either need one of those lawn spreaders or you just sling it around.

Pelletized lime will spread a lot easier with a boadcast spreader (i have one on my plot mule) but costs more like 5 bucks for a 40 lb bag I have read the pelletized lime is about 40% more effective per pound than ag lime though. As Jim said, ag lime is even cheaper when you can buy it in bulk

Do you have an ATV or a garden tractor? Before I got the plot mule I had decent results with a tow behind thatcher that I picked up at a yard sale for 15 bucks. I've also heard of guys dragging an old bedspring around to scratch up the earth a little. (sure beats rakin!) Even the no plow stuff works much better if you get the top of the dirt a little scratched up.


From the sounds of your plot location, the best thing would be to clear and lime it now, spray roundup in 2-4 weeks before planting and plant for a fall plotbased on the planting time shown on the seed package. I'd try secret spot, pure attaction or no plow. If you will be hunting this spot well past the first frost, make sure you use a mix with brassicas (turnip family) which sweetens after a frost.

We found that it took a seasonfor the deertocatch on to the turnips where they hadnt seen them before but once they started on em they positively mauled em!

gmil6184

Sounds good TRACKER, why pumpkins though? Do deer like them or did you just plant them for yourself?

35 bucks a ton is pretty cheap! I was expecting it to be way more then that, that's a pleasant surprise haha. For the in the woods and a couple of the other smaller plots I'll prob see if I can find bagged lime just because it would be more convenient. We have a couple wheelers, Honda Fourtrax Ranchers so that will make things a little easier. I figured i'd just pick up a push behind spreader for the lime and seed. Def going to make sure there are some type of brassicas in there because we have a frost damn near every morning of deer season haha. Thanks again for the input guys, i'm sure i'll have more questions later haha.

mlo31351270

Quote:

mlo - that's an awesome picture! how big of a field is that? I've read that if you plant corn and soybeans it has to be fairly big or they will eat it down to nothing before it is able to mature. Do you plant a special food plot mix or do you just use regular agricultural seed? haha again sorry for all the questions, I really appreciate it

gmil6184,
I plant between 3 and 4 acres of corn and about 2 acres of soybeans.
This year I used RR - Pioneer 39D80 BT-X 80 day corn, which turned out great. Of course it was a good corn year. The BT is for Corn Borer and the X is for Root Worm. This is a must if you plant corn in the same spot for more than three years. I use 15-15-15 fertilizer at between 275-300 lbs per acre.

The deer ate alot of leaves off the soybeans during the summer but i still had a great soybean crop.

mlo31351270

Soybeans during summer.

mlo31351270

Soybeans in the fall with winter rye planted between the rows. I broadcast the rye seed when the soybean leaves turned yellow.

mlo31351270

My soybeans are Round up Ready also. This is what they looked like before i sprayed them. Weed controll is very important for a good crop.

mlo31351270

Just starting to make a cob. By spring the cornis conpletly gone.